Arab Chat: READERS' OPEN FORUMNo Mideast utopia * Utopia in "Let Freedom Ring" (Open Forum, Dec. 25) sounds blissful, until one's intelligent enough to understand Arab culture. This is not Normandy or Okinawa. Thirteen elite Israeli commandos who recently dissented from an "eye for an eye" approach toward their neighbors found that a reality. I recently read that our troops in Iraq are being taught much of the same "round 'em up...

Arab Chat: THOUSANDS RALLY NEAR GROUND ZEROTHOUSANDS OF CONSTRUCTION WORKERS AND FIREFIGHTERS PACKED A NOONTIME RALLY AT GROUND ZERO THURSDAY IN SUPPORT OF THE WAR IN IRAQ WHICH, TO MANY OF THEM, BEGAN RIGHT THERE SEPT. 11, 2001. THE RALLY, ESTIMATED AT MORE THAN 15,000, STRETCHED FOR SEVERAL BLOCKS NORTH FROM THE WORLD TRADE CENTER SITE. CARPENTERS, ELECTRICIANS AND FIREFIGHTERS CARRIED AMERICAN FLAGS AND HOMEMADE SIGNS AND CHANTED "USA! USA!"MANY SPEAKERS AND PARTICIPANTS DESCRIBED THE WAR AS A NATURAL...

Arab Chat: Case demonstrates perils of QatarI doubt that last month's delegation from Carolina to Qatar ran into Louay Abdulla while being wined and dined by officials of the Qatar Foundation. That's probably because the tour buses didn't stop at the prison where Abdulla, a former doctoral student and teacher from Kent State, is serving a two-year sentence after being convicted of insulting the emir's wife.From what I can gather on the Internet, from news postings and...

Arab Chat: Mistakes affect papers' effectBy Allan Lazarus Like fire ants in your yard, affect/effect errors keep popping up. Reader Gertrude Rogge found three of them in one paper - in a headline, a news story and a letter to the editor.In each case the verb affect was used incorrectly in place of the noun effect. The headline - also cited by Martha Meier and Mr. Anonymous - read: "Disease has affect on local businesses." (It has an effect.) The others: "...those who have the most...